Odisha’s State Level Facilitation Cell reaches landmark milestone

Bhubaneswar: Aimed towards reviewing the investment proposals received by the state as well as assisting companies in actualising the investments on the ground, Odisha’s State Level Facilitation Cell (SLFC) today reached a landmark milestone of 100 meetings and was chaired by Minister for Industries, Mr. Niranjan Pujari. Since its inception in August 2015, SLFC has cleared a total of 98 projects worth Rs 1,73,270 crore.
Comprising of full-time members from Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, Odisha Power Transmission Corporation, State Pollution Control Board, Directorate of Factories and Boilers and Water Resource Department, SLFC meets prospective investors every week to mentor and guide them.
A member from the industry is also nominated to the facilitation cell to handhold and mentor prospective entrepreneurs and presents the view points of the industry. Some of the big ticket projects cleared by SLFC since its inception include JSW Steel’s 10 MT steel plant at Paradip with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore, which will create employment for 30,000 people; Deepak Fertiliser’s unit at Paradip at an investment of Rs 1,750 crore creating jobs for 440 people and expansion of Paradeep Phosphate’s fertiliser unit at an investment of Rs 9459 crore, creating employment opportunities for 2667 people.
Addressing the 100th SLFC meet, Hon’ble Minister for Industries, Mr Pujari said, “The state government strongly believes in building a conducive environment for potential investors and existing industries in the state. In this endeavour, we all continuously need to work together towards making the state a preferred destination for industries”.
Further elaborating on the efficiency of SLFC, Mr. Pujari said “The cell has been able to facilitate nearly 100 eligible projects into the state with a total investments of near 180 thousand crore in the past two years.”
The facilitation cell took average time of 7.41 days to review and clear green category projects and 13.26 days for non-green projects. During the entire journey of SLFC, 201 grievances of industry have also been resolved by SLFC.
The Industries Minister today also launched the inclusion of legal metrology verifications in central inspection framework (CIF) for making it more transparent and industry friendly.
This will ensure synchronised inspections with the existing inspections of directorate of factories & boilers, labour directorate and Odisha pollution control board, which are already under the purview of CIF.
The central inspection framework for industries entails inspection by following standard operating procedures and transparent checklists along with risk based selection of companies. It also involves computerised random allocation of inspectors.
Also, there is a provision of online inspection reports for company verification within 48 hours of completion of inspection. As of now, there are 4637 industries which come under CIF.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sanjeev Chopra, Principal Secretary, Industries Department, Government of Odisha said, “The central inspection framework ensures that industry do not face any kind of difficulty while inspections. Also, verification can be done at the instance of the unit via newly launched legal metrology verification, which will also take care of online payment of fees”.
Mr Chopra also suggested that representation of other line departments is needed for quick and effective resolution of issues as well as active participation from industry associations in SLFC functioning.
Post SLFC meeting, Industries Minister Mr Niranjan Pujari inaugurated a state level workshop on “Ease of doing Business in Odisha” where industry associations and entrepreneurs were apprised about various business reforms implemented by concerned departments to facilitate businesses in Odisha.
The workshop was chaired by key officials including Mr AP Padhi, Chief Secretary, Mr LN Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Micro Small & Medium Enterprise Department and Mr Sanjeev Chopra, Principal Secretary, Industries.
Mr Padhi on this occasion said that the state has implemented key reforms on property registration, labour, land bank & allotment and building plan system and many more reforms will come into place.
The major reforms discussed in the meeting included central inspection framework and single window portal,
wherein all industry applications and approvals can be made online.